Disney
by The Atomic Cafe
Summary: Mac and Stella work with a case that ends up striking a few nerves.


**Disney**

**By Dimgwrthien**

Disclaimer: I do not own CSI: NY or affiliates.

The television flickered on, showing the static grey tape. Mac turned the tape over, trying to find the faint arrow from the label. Under the arrow was a white label with the classic Disney logo on it. The black font said "The Lion King". Mac put it inside of the VCR tray, waiting for it to load.

Stella walked up behind him, holding a stack of movies in her arms. Mac glanced up at her.

The case involved a serial pedophile who may or may not have killed one of the children. While going through the man's apartment, they found at least two dozen Disney movies from a local movie rental store, all rewound to their beginning. Danny, who had found the tapes, remarked that no one in New York ever bothered doing that with rentals.

Mac hit the play button, and they both watched the beginning of the movie, seeing the flashing reds and oranges of the African day. The music played quietly in the background.

Stella looked at Mac. "Normal tapes? Why would he have these?"

"To bring in children?" Mac guessed. He watched for another second, ready to turn away, when the gray static returned. Stella and Mac leaned in a little, trying to make out the picture. It finally cleared up, still a midscale gray. A man looked like he was adjusting the camera, then turned enough to let the camera see the bed behind him, where a small boy was tied up. The man seemed to be getting undressed and getting onto the bed.

Stella covered her eyes and turned slightly. "I _hate_ finding this kind of evidence!" she snarled. "Jesus! Can't any killers be _civil_ for once?"

Mac muted the television, unable to find a response to Stella, fast forwarding through as much of it as possible. It was clear that the man raped the child, and Mac found himself looking a few inches to the right of the screen instead of at it. He could still hear the child's yelling in his mind.

Glancing up, Stella saw that the tape was still playing, and covered her eyes again, making a disgusted sound.

"Just have to get to the end," Mac said in a low voice, partly to himself. "I can't see who the boy is, but if this man does anything worse, we'll have a strong enough case against him."

The tape ended rather soon, and Mac saw that the boy was not moving. "I think we'll need to go frame by frame," he muttered, taking the tape out miserably.

"Taping himself with children on Disney tapes," Stella whispered, finally looking up. Mac noticed that she looked more depressed than angry. "I can't believe some son of a bitch would do that. As if it isn't already disgusting enough to have _that_ many records on your file, but to film it?"

Mac reached out and took Stella's shoulder lightly. She shook him off. "Stella." Mac stared at the back of her head. He couldn't think of anything to say to comfort her, so he tried the next best thing he could do. "Do you want me to switch you to another case?"

"No," she answered stubbornly. "I just hate seeing this happen to kids, but if we don't solve it, there'll be one more disgusting person in the world."

"Alright. I just don't want you breaking up on me," Mac answered, and he meant it. She turned around to glance at him, her green eyes looking too wet and too red. She was biting her bottom lip slightly as she looked him over and then looked at the pile of movies.

"Give me that one," she said to Mac, taking the one he was holding. "I'll do the framing."

She left the room quickly, her heels clanking on the floor. Mac watched her round a corner and disappear from his view.

He knew that she had grown up not knowing her parents and that she liked children quite a bit, but Mac never thought that Stella would mind it so much. When he thought back, though, she seemed to always have tense shoulders and a firm look when dealing with those kinds of cases. Looking back at where she walked to, Mac followed, leaving the pile of tapes behind and the television still on.

Stella sat at a computer, glancing over at the television. A wire linked the two, transferring the images. Stella froze it quickly, trying to grab up a picture of the boy. Mac watched her from behind.

When she did grab up a picture, she stared at it for at least two minutes. Without looking back at Mac, she whispered to him, "He died, Mac."

Mac walked forward to look into the screen. He could just barely make out the rope in the man's hands, strangling the child as he climbed onto the body. Stella printed the picture, taking the tape out of the VCR as the printer worked. Without looking at the paper, she stuck it inside of a folder and handed it to Mac.

"Case solved," she said blankly. "Child goes missing. Record of the man being with the child. Man is killing child." She stood up, shoving the chair roughly into place. "I'll be in the break room. Be back soon."

Mac let her walk away with a comfort in the fact that he wouldn't chase her down. He let her walk away with no sense of security but the one in Mac looking at her like a coworker during work hours.

And he hated himself for it.


End file.
